Saturday, March 24, 2007

Another great review on Amazon!!!

By a Patrick Dorazio, who doesn't know me from Adam, but clearly is a man of discerning tastes, probing intellect, and rapier wit:

Jonah Caine is stuck in a living hell. The world has collapsed around him. Alone, he travels in the darkness of the world, the living dead his only company. He wanders and hopes for genuine companionship; someone to share in what little is left for humanity. He stumbles upon a group hiding out in a museum in a medium-small city. The group has staked their claim on their little part of the world and have lived, for a year, in relative safety. The group is lead by Jack, who was one of the military that fought against the living dead and helped discover this hideaway, and Milton, who has a special and unique gift, along with a tremendous desire to not only rebuild a better civilization but a passion for learning from humanities greatest weaknesses and strengths. This book, much more so than many other works in this genre, really explores the meanings behind both the good and evil embedded in humankind. Much like the novel "Every Sigh, The End" the author here desires to examine the human condition and does not assume that the living dead are the worst beings out there by a long shot. And how much can those who are "good" tolerate? How much do they want to not only survive, but to live? Don't let this staid description fool you, Kim does a bang up job keeping the action here moving along at a strong pace, with very few lulls. The story is told from Jonah's perspective, who was formerly a College English Professor, so his thoughts conjure up a great deal of references from a variety of literature sources and western civilizations rather vivid images of hell. I guess for me, this book was so entertaining because the author seems so intrigued at the meaning behind both the mind numbing destruction wrought by the living dead as well as the much more horrifying and unspeakable terror brought forth by our own human brethren and how God could allow such things to happen. While I like to read zombie stories to get a jolt of excitement and terror I also love these stories because to me zombies are so incredibly fascinating. Not just for what they are or what they represent, but what they seem to be able to elicit in their human counterparts who are trapped in the same dying and desperate world as they are-what do we all become everything around us is drenched in death and despair. I feel that Kim Paffenroth did an excellent job of examining the boundaries of humanity, both good and evil, and for that I highly recommend this book.

Thanks! I know it sounds crazy, but I don't know how else to say it: when I read a review like this, I realize that what I was trying to say was something that could actually be perceived and understood by another person! Until you see that reaction, you always worry that you're putting all these words down, and YOU know what you're trying to say (well, duh, of course you do!), but there's this nagging fear that someone else will just read it and go "Huh?! I don't get it!" I am so elated by this! I feel like I could take on the world!

2 Comments:

Blogger Matt Staggs said...

No, that's not crazy at all. Anyone that really cares about communicating a message often has those doubts.
Language is such an ephemeral thing, prone to alchemical permutations as it passes from page to eye to brain.

12:37 PM  
Blogger KPaffenroth said...

Well said! I think there's also so much invested in writing, so much personal worth and risk, that the worries compound.

1:59 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home



Masken





Triumph of The Walking Dead